Dynamic display of real time speech analytics agent alert indications in a contact center

ABSTRACT

A real-time speech analytics system (“RSTA system”) detects a speech condition during a call involving a contact center agent and a remote party. Upon detecting the speech condition, an alert message is provided to an alert reporting module (“ARM”), which is configured to access various data to form a RTSA alert. In one embodiment, the RTSA alert is a transient alert indication overlaid on an agent icon on a grid where the agent icon represents the agent and is displayed to a contact center supervisor. Information on the type and severity of the alert may be conveyed by text and non-text images, such as icons, colors, or symbols. A number representing a cumulative number of alert messages received for each agent may be indicated in an alert bubble overlaid on the agent icon. A viewer is able to request detailed alert data upon selecting the alert bubble.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The field of the invention generally pertains to contact centers, and specifically, how an alert indication reflecting a detected speech condition involving an agent on a call in the contact center can be effectively displayed in a transient manner on a workstation to a supervisor in the contact center.

BACKGROUND

Contact centers must comply with various regulations governing how a call may be conducted between an agent in the contact center and an individual. The applicable regulations depend on the purpose of the call, and these may involve various federal and state regulations that govern calls for debt collection, soliciting charitable donations, telemarketing, informational calls, etc.

For example, debt collection calls are governed by regulations that govern aspects of how a debt may be collected. At various points in a debt collection call, certain information is required to be conveyed to the debtor by the agent. For example, the agent may be required to inform the individual that the purpose of the call is to collect a debt. On the other hand, in other contexts, the agent is prohibited from making certain statements to the debtor. For example, the agent is precluded from making intimidating statements or attempting to collect on the debt after being informed by the debtor that they are represented by an attorney. Thus, in various contexts, agents are required to state certain information and refrain from making other statements.

Training agents on the various regulations has been the basic approach for ensuring the agents are complying with all the applicable regulations. This ensures that agents know the applicable regulations. While knowing the regulations at a high level is a pre-requisite for agents to comply with them, knowing the regulations does not necessarily mean the agents are complying with them on a call. Thus, agent training is usually supplemented by reviewing call recordings to verify that agents are complying with various regulations. For instance a supervisor may review a call with an agent in order to instruct the agent in any performance deficiencies. Reviewing recorded calls may be further supplemented by real-time monitoring of the agent to provide immediate feedback to ensure the agent is compliance with applicable regulations. This involves the supervisor listening in using a conference bridge, so that the supervisor can hear the agent's performance for a given call in real time. Some technologies allow the supervisor to listen only, or also provide voice prompts that are only heard by the agent.

However, whether a supervisor is engaged in reviewing recorded calls and/or monitoring active calls, these activities are usually limited in nature. Typically, there are a number of agents for every supervisor, and it is simply not feasible for the supervisor to review a significant percentage of each agent's calls. Typically, the supervisor has additional duties than just reviewing recorded calls. Thus, a deficiency with an agent's performance may proceed for some time without being detected.

Contact centers may now employ speech analytics systems (“SAS”) to assist in this task. While prior SAS reviewed call recordings in non-real time, current SAS can monitor calls in real-time and may be referred to as real-time speech analytics systems (“RTSA systems”). Further, such RTSA systems are more sophisticated than prior systems that just performed speech recognition. The technology found in a RTSA system can analyze numerous calls for a number of speech conditions that are context dependent. This may provide an enormous amount of real-time data, which then raises an issue of how to easily and practically inform a supervisor of the relevant information. Thus, improved approaches are needed for synthesizing and delivering RTSA information in an effective manner to a supervisor. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure herein is presented.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Technologies are generally presented herein pertaining to systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media for presenting an alert. In one embodiment, the alert is a transient indication presented over a graphical image associated with an agent, wherein the alert reports detection of a speech condition on a call involving an agent and remote party. In another embodiment, a viewer of the graphical image may request and be presented with information about the speech condition. In various embodiments, information about the alert may be represented by various icons, colors, images, and text.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a contact center used in conjunction with the concepts and technologies presented herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a call involving a speech analytics system capable of generating real-time alerts that are processed by an alert reporting module for display to a contact center supervisor.

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate embodiments of process flows of the alert reporting module to display real-time speech analytics alerts.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of an agent icon that may be displayed on a workstation.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a display on a workstation showing a plurality of agent icons.

FIGS. 6-7 illustrate embodiments of real-time speech analytics alerts overlaid on an agent icon.

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrates embodiments of a user interacting with a real-time speech analytics alert overlaid on an agent icon on a display.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of further information associated with a real-time speech analytics alert.

FIGS. 10A-10C illustrate an embodiment of a floor plan map and a real-time speech analytics alert overlaid thereupon.

FIGS. 11A-11B illustrate an embodiment of a tabular real-time speech analytics display with a real-time speech analytics alert overlaid thereupon.

FIG. 12 is an embodiment of one embodiment of an alert mapping data structure used in generating an alert.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of a processing system for practicing the concepts and technologies disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments for practicing the technologies disclosed herein are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the technologies are shown. Indeed, the embodiments disclosed herein are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements and should not be construed as limiting or precluding other embodiments applying the teachings and concepts disclosed herein. As will be evident, there are a number of variations on the embodiments disclosed herein, but which are based on similar concepts and goals. Like numbers in the drawings refer to like elements throughout.

GLOSSARY

The following terms are to be given the following meanings in this specification, when used in the appropriate context. Further, the terms defined herein are not necessarily applicable to any parent patent application(s) from which priority is claimed or which are incorporated by reference. Any examples included in a definition are not intended to be exclusive or limiting, but merely illustrative.

Alert (a.k.a. “alert indication”)—information related to a condition detected during a call between an agent and remote party. In most contexts herein, reference to an “alert” involves a “RTSA alert” which is a particular form of an alert that reports information in real-time related to a speech condition during the call. An RTSA alert is typically related to detecting unexpected speech or failing to detect expected speech. If reference is made to an “alert” that is not an RTSA alert, then this will be clear from the context.

Alert Bubble—an icon displaying a numerical value representing the number of alerts reported during a current call for a particular agent. Typically, the alert bubble icon is displayed once an alert is reported and remains displayed for the duration of the call. The numerical value indicated by an alert bubble may be incremented during the call if another alert is reported.

Alert Details—information that provides additional details about one or more alerts. This may be displayed in a message box (“alert details box”), usually comprising only text, but which may incorporate icons and/or colors. The Alert Details are usually displayed in response to a user selecting a particular Alert Bubble. In such cases, the Alert Details may be displayed until explicitly closed, or may be displayed for a set time.

Alert Overlay—a message box, which may incorporate various icons and different colors that indicate information about a currently reported alert. The icons and/or colors may be used to report a type or severity of the alert. The alert overlay typically is displayed in a transient manner, e.g., for a few seconds before disappearing.

Agent Icon—an icon used on a graphical user interface comprising text information identifying an agent and possibly their status, typically along with an image of that agent. The image may be a picture, drawing, or other symbol of that agent.

Compliance Score—a numerical score allocated in conjunction with one or more detected speech conditions that is associated with a compliance requirement. This could be allocated on a per-instance basis or on a cumulative basis for a particular agent.

Positivity Score—a numerical score allocated in conjunction with detected speech conditions where the score reflects the extent of an agent's favorable or desirable behavior (or undesirable behavior). This could be allocated on a per-instance basis or on a cumulative basis for a particular agent.

RTSA System—a speech analytics system capable of providing real-time analysis of speech in a defined context. This may be employed in a contact center to detect and report on various speech conditions between an agent and a remote party that occur on a call.

Speech Condition—a condition involving the speech on a call between two parties pertaining to either 1) the detected presence of specific speech or 2) the absence of specific speech. Typically, though not always, this involves speech involving the agent.

Transient Alert Indication—an alert indication that is provided in a transient manner, wherein information is displayed and then removed after a time period without any user interaction. The time period typically is configurable, and may range from less than a second to the duration of the call. Typically, the duration is set to be less than 10-30 seconds.

Tabular Manner—having a characteristic of a table format comprising rows and columns, with each cell formed thereby comprising text, and which may also incorporate different colors and/or icons.

Topic—a particular instance of a speech condition that a RTSA system is configured to detect and report. This is reported by the RTSA system to the alert reporting module via an alert message. The topic may be identified by a name, for ease of human reference. Thus, e.g., “welcome greeting detected” may be the name of a topic associated with detecting a word or phrase identified as a welcome greeting.

Service Concepts

Contact centers must comply with various federal and state regulations that govern how certain types of calls may be conducted. These regulations may provide a spectrum of guidelines as to how certain types of calls are to be conducted. For example, broad guidelines may prohibit an agent involved in a debt collection call from making intimidating statements to the debtor. On the other hand, other guidelines may be very specific in that they require the agent involved in a debt collection call provide certain information (e.g., make certain statements) to the debtor, such as indicating that the purpose of the call is to collect a debt. Further, many contact centers have other policies, such as prohibiting agents from using curse words with a remote party, mandating a welcome greeting, or requiring the agent to ask the party at the end of the call whether there are any outstanding questions or issues that need to be addressed.

Compliance with these regulations may require the agent to convey certain information, or to refrain from making certain statements. Usually, compliance with the regulations requires the agent to behave in a certain manner, as opposed to the remote party. In various circumstances, the agent's behavior may depend on what the remote party says. Obviously, a contact center cannot control what the remote party does or does not say on a call with the agent, and rather focuses on the agent's conduct. Thus, depending on the context, including based on what the remote party says, the agent is expected to provide certain information or refrain from using certain speech. These may be broadly referred to as “speech conditions.”

In the past, detection of undesirable speech conditions was largely performed by humans. This may have been performed by reviewing call recordings and manually evaluating whether the agent complied with certain regulations. In addition, such evaluation may have been performed in real-time by a supervisor, by using a “barge-in” or other conferencing capability whereby the supervisor could listen to or monitor the conversation. Regardless of whether the activity was done in real-time or in non-real-time, the process was labor intensive in that it required a knowledgeable and experienced person to perform the evaluations. However, some of the activity is, by its nature, menial. For example, monitoring the speech for a curse word uttered by the agent does not require any particular experience and can be a tedious exercise.

Speech analytics systems (“SAS”) are now able to detect programmed speech conditions, and more recently, can perform this in real-time. Thus, a real-time speech analytics system (“RTSA system”) is an effective labor-saving technology that can provide real-time analysis of many conversations of agents in a contact center on a non-stop basis. RTSA is more sophisticated than mere speech recognition, in that it allows more sophisticated contexts to be defined. For example, it can detect when an agent responds inappropriately to a certain question posed by the remote party, as opposed to merely recognizing a particular word or phrase.

For example, it may be possible to detect using speech recognition when the agent states the words “I can't tell you.” This may be a valid answer if the agent is asked by an individual for confidential information, e.g., his annual salary or home address. On the other hand, if the remote individual asks their current balance or due date for the next payment, such an answer is inappropriate. Speech analytics can detect the context and apply rules for generating an alert, which mere speech recognition systems cannot.

Thus, SAS can alleviate the need for a supervisor or similar person to analyze each call serially. Obviously, requiring a supervisor to monitor each call limits the number of calls from agents that can be monitored. Thus, using a SAS makes it now possible for all calls of all agents to be continuously monitored for compliance and other aspects.

This raises an issue of how a supervisor is expected to analyze the results from a RTSA system. There are a number of speech conditions that may be detected during a call, and it may be quite burdensome and overwhelming for a supervisor to be able to review the results from all calls, especially if the results are provided non-stop in real-time. For example, a contact center may have dozens or hundreds of agents that are making a number of calls. Providing real-time results of each speech condition detected could easily overwhelm a supervisor.

The results from the RTSA system that are provided to a supervisor are referred to as “alerts” or more specifically, “RTSA alerts.” RTSA alerts report detection of a particular speech condition. Usually, the alert relates to speech from the agent, not from the remote party. However, the speech condition reported with respect to the agent may be based on a context that takes into account speech from the remote party. For example, once an agent engaged in a debt collection call is informed by the debtor that they are represented by a lawyer, any further attempts by the agent to collect the debt should cease. Thus, detecting an attempt to collect a debt is a concern only if the party has informed the agent that they have retained a lawyer. Consequently, reporting this speech condition relates to the agent, but the context involves speech from both the remote party and the agent.

The alert may report a negative or undesirable speech condition, which may be a violation of a policy or regulation. In addition, the alert may report a positive or desirable speech condition, which may reflect that the agent is in conformance with a policy or regulation. Thus, the supervisor reviewing alerts may receive either positive or negative alerts. These may be used in evaluating the performance of an agent. Typically, these are compiled into a numerical value, called a “score” of some type (e.g., a “compliance score”).

Supervisors reviewing such alerts may require various types of information in order to quickly assess a RTSA alert. For example, since supervisors may be receiving or reviewing alerts in real-time, they may find it beneficial that the alerts are formatted so they can quickly evaluate whether a particular alert is a positive or negative alert. A negative alert may represent a compliance violation and depending on the context, may require immediate intervention by the supervisor. A quick and easy method of distinguishing between a positive and negative alert is by color code on the alert indication. An alert indication may be associated with one color for positive alerts, such as green, and another color for negative alerts, such as red. Other colors may be used to reflect other categories. Ascertaining the color of a visual indication can be done very quickly and easily, and much quicker than having to read, e.g., text.

Further, a visual indication of the severity of the alert is useful. This allows the supervisor to focus their attention on the severe versus minor violations. Again, this can be reflected by different color shades or hues used on the alert indication. Thus, a dark red could be interpreted as more severe than a light red. In another embodiment, an icon may be included in the alert to indicate a severity. This may involve various levels of colors, line thicknesses, shapes, or sizes. Thus, a small exclamation point (“!”) may represent one level of severity, and a greater severity level may be reflected by e.g., a larger font, different color, or by concatenating two such marks (e.g., “!!”). In addition, in other embodiments, a sound level may optionally be used to indicate a severity. This may involve different sounds or different levels of the same sound. Sounds may be defined to merely attract attention (e.g., a whistle or chirp), convey urgency or a warning (e.g., a claxon sound), or some other characteristic.

The alert itself may also include text-based information to provide additional details. Text-based information obviously requires the intended recipient (usually the contact center supervisor or manager) to read and understand the information in order to evaluate its significance. Thus, text-based information may be used by a supervisor to augment the color/icon information if they so desire. In other words, the supervisor may select a particular alert based on the color or severity and then review the associated text.

In addition, the supervisor needs to be able to quickly review current alert information, past (historical) alert information, as well as trends. This allows the supervisor to quickly evaluate whether a problem is transient, ongoing, or developing into a worse situation. This must be provided with minimal interaction and distraction with the supervisor, given the potentially large number of alerts that may be received.

Associating an Alert with an Agent

Associating a given alert to a given agent is necessary for various reasons. If there is a negative speech condition detected and reported, the supervisor requires knowledge of which agent was involved, not that there simply was a negative alert reported from among a set of agents. There may be, e.g., a hundred agents. Obviously, providing corrective action for an agent requires knowing which agent is involved. The association of an agent with an alert can occur in various ways. Two main ways include: tabular and graphical.

First, it is important to distinguish that the tabular format for reporting alerts is not the same as table-based reports. Reports are well known in contact centers and provide tables of various statistics for agents, which can be organized in different ways. However, the information is presented as a static summary. Frequently, such reports convey information in a non-interactive, non-real time format, which requires presenting all available information on the table, and if not presented, the information is not readily available. Thus, a conventional report format makes it difficult to provide the various levels of detail which may or may not be required depending on the circumstances.

In contrast, alert indications are dynamically presented in real-time according to the concepts and technologies presented herein. Thus, the tabular format is not the same as a table—based report. In the tabular format, each alert is indicated in a column on a table with the name of the agent (or functional equivalent identifier) indicated in a corresponding column. Thus, one format may list the alert in a row in the table along with the agent's name in another column in that row. The use of such tabular reports is well known in contact centers, but such information is typically not real-time summaries of information. The tabular format, as with the graphical format, may provide real-time information, and may allow the ability to “drill-down” and obtain further detailed information. This is not possible in a static report.

A graphical form is well suited for quick association of an alert to an agent by the supervisor. Thus, the graphical form is well adapted to real-time indications and evaluations. This can be done by associating an alert to a map of a particular work location of the agent and/or including a pictorial image or icon of the agent. One embodiment involves a work location map, typically referred to as a “floor plan map.” This may represent a floor diagram of the contact center. The floor plan map is typically applicable to contact centers that maintain a physical presence (as opposed to contact centers that support work-at-home or virtual agents). In a floor plan map, a layout of the various agent positions is shown, and a particular agent may be identified by highlighting or otherwise identifying a particular location on the floor plan map. Typically, the location is associated with their workspace or cubicle location.

The other graphical approach involves a series of agent icons, which represent an agent. Each agent may have a picture or other icon associated with their image, along with their name, for quick identification. A series of agent icons may be presented in a grid or a matrix of rows and columns, which allows easy identification of a particular agent. These can be grouped in various ways, including: alphabetically by name, by workgroup, location, experience, skill set, experience, etc.

The alert may contain the appropriate text and icon information such that the supervisor can identify the nature of the alert quickly and identify the agent that the alert is associated with by the relative positioning of the alert indication. In either the tabular or graphical form, the RTSA alert may be overlaid on the tabular, floor plan map, or over the appropriate agent icon or position to identify the agent involved. The alert is positioned to be approximate to the appropriate graphical image associated with the agent. This may be accomplished by overlaying the alert on a portion of the graphical image or the surrounding space associated that graphical image. Other embodiments may use a pointer or other graphical indicator to link the alert to the appropriate agent. In various embodiments, the name and/or image of the corresponding agent may be shown.

Typically, the alert indication is displayed in a transient manner. That is, the alert indication is displayed for a limited amount of time. If the alert indication was permanently displayed, there would eventually be a number of alert indications that would cover the display screen and interfere with reviewing the information. This would make it very difficult to ascertain which alert indications were current, recent, or important.

In various embodiments, an alert count is maintained on the tabular, floor plan or agent icon showing a cumulative number of alerts received. This allows the supervisor to review which agents are incurring alerts, which allows the supervisor to evaluate conditions even if they do not witness the transient alert indication.

Contact Center Overview—FIGS. 1 & 2

Exemplary Call Center Architecture

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a call center architecture 100 that may be used in accordance with the various technologies disclosed herein. The call center shown in FIG. 1 may process voice calls that are inbound-only, outbound-only, or a combination of both (sometimes referred to as a “blended” call center). Although many aspects of call center operation are disclosed in the context of voice calls, in various embodiments, the call center may process other forms of communication such as, for example, facsimiles, emails, text messages, video calls, and chat messages. That is, the call center may be considered a contact center. Thus, although a contact center has been referenced above, for the purposes of the remainder of this disclosure, the term “call center” is used throughout, although it is understood that the two are synonymous.

Since the call center may handle calls originating from a calling party, or initiated to a called party, the term “party,” without any further qualification, refers to a person associated with a call processed by the call center, where the call is either received from or placed to the party. The term “calling party,” if used, will generally refer to a party communicating with the call center, but in many cases this usage is exemplary. Thus, use of the term “calling party” is not intended to limit the concepts to only inbound calls or voice calls, unless the context dictates such.

Depending on the embodiment, inbound voice calls may originate from calling parties using a variety of different phone types. For instance, a calling party may originate a call from a conventional analog telephone 102 connected to a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) 115 using an analog plain old telephone service (“POTS”) line 116 a. The calls may be routed by the PSTN 115 and may comprise various types of facilities 116 d, including, but not limited to: T1 trunks, SONET based fiber optic networks, ATM networks, etc. Various types of routers, switches, bridges, gateways, and other types of equipment may be involved in the processing of the calls.

Inbound voice calls may also originate from a mobile phone device 109, such as a smart phone, tablet, or other mobile device, which wirelessly communicates with a mobile service provider (“MSP”) 112. The voice calls may be routed to the PSTN 115 using an integrated services digital network (“ISDN”) interface 116 b or other types of interfaces that are well known to those skilled in the art. In particular embodiments, the MSP 112 may also route calls as packetized voice, referred to herein as voice-over-IP (“VoIP”) to an Internet provider 123 b using Internet-based protocols. For convenience, unless indicated otherwise, the term “trunk” refers to any type of facility 116 c, 116 d, or 116 e providing voice calls to, or from, the call center, regardless of the type of protocol or technology used. Specifically, a “trunk” is not limited to time-division multiplexing (“TDM”) technology.

Inbound voice calls may also originate from a calling party employing a so-called “IP phone,” “VoIP phone,” or “soft phone” 103. In one embodiment, this device may comprise a computing device 105, such as a laptop, computing tablet, or other electronic device, which interfaces with a headphone/microphone combination, also referred to as a “headset” 106. An IP phone may use a digital voice control protocol and may process packetized voice data according to various Internet based voice protocols, such as session initiated protocol (“SIP”). The call may be conveyed by other types of Internet providers 123 a, such as a cable company providing Internet access services over a coaxial cable facility 116 e. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a variety of protocols and facilities may be used to convey voice calls.

The term “telephone call” as used herein is generally synonymous with a “voice call” unless indicated otherwise. Further, the term “telephone call” may encompass a voice call originating from any type of device, such as a soft phone 103, a conventional telephone 102, a mobile phone 109, or other device known in the art. The term “call” as used herein may encompass an active instance of two-way communication, an attempt to establish two-way communication, or a portion of the two-way communication. For example, a user at a conventional telephone 102 can dial a telephone call in an attempt to establish two-way communication, and a call can be said to exist even prior to establishment of a two-way connection. In another example, a call may be put on hold, and a portion of the call may be referred to as a “call leg” existing between the caller and certain equipment. A call may comprise a number of concatenated call legs, as known to those skilled in the art. In certain contexts, which will be made explicit, the call may encompass communications other than voice, for example, text, email, video chat, facsimile, etc.

In various embodiments, inbound calls from calling parties to the call center may be received at a call handler 110, which could be an automatic call distributor (“ACD”). In particular embodiments, the call handler 110 may be a specialized switch for receiving and routing inbound calls under various conditions. Further, the call handler 110 may be embodied as a dedicated form of equipment readily available from various manufacturers, or the call handler 110 may be a so-called “soft switch” comprising a suitable programming module executed by a processing device to perform the necessary functions. The call handler 110 may route an incoming call over call center facilities 165 to an available agent. Depending on the embodiment, the facilities 165 may be any suitable technology for conveying the call, including but not limited to a local area network (“LAN”), wide area network (“WAN”), ISDN, or conventional TDM circuits. In addition, the facilities 165 may be the same or different from the facilities used to transport the call to the call handler 110.

In various embodiments, calls may be routed over facilities 165 to an agent for servicing. That is, for example, the party may speak with an agent to receive customer service. The physical area at which the agent sits is often referred to as an agent “position” and these positions are often grouped into clusters managed by a supervisor, who may monitor calls and the agents' productivity. An agent typically uses a computing device 160 a-160 c, such as a computer, and a voice device 161 a-161 c. The combination of computing device 160 a-160 c and voice device 161 a-161 c may be referred to as a “workstation.” Thus, for these particular embodiments, the workstation collectively has a data capability and a voice capability, although separate devices may be used. In some instances, “workstation” may be used in reference to either the data or voice capability at the agent's position. For example, “routing the call to the agent's workstation” means routing a call to one of the voice devices 161 a-161 c at the agent's position. Similarly, “routing the call to the agent” means routing a call to the appropriate equipment at an agent's position.

In particular embodiments, the voice device 161 a-161 c used by an agent may be a soft phone device exemplified by a headset 161 a connected to the computer 160 a. The soft phone device may be a virtual telephone implemented in part by an application program executing on the computer 160 a. Further, the phone may also comprise an Internet Protocol (“IP”) based headset 161 b or a conventional phone 161 c. Use of the term “phone” is intended to encompass all these types of voice devices used by an agent, unless indicated otherwise.

Agents typically log onto their workstations prior to handling calls. This allows the call center to know which agents are available for handling calls. In particular embodiments, the call handler 110 may also maintain data of an agent's skill level that may be used to route a specific call to the agent or group of agents having the same skill level. In particular instances, if a suitable agent is not available to handle a call, the call handler 110 may queue the call for the next available agent. As can be expected, various algorithms may be employed to process calls in an efficient manner.

In various embodiments, two types of signaling information may be provided with an inbound call that may be used by the call handler 110 in processing the call. The first type of signaling information indicates the telephone number dialed by the calling party, and is frequently referred to as “DNIS,” derived from the Dialed Number Identification Service associated with this capability. For example, in particular instances, a call center may provide various services, such as sales, customer service, technical support, etc., each of which may be associated with a different telephone number (e.g., multiple toll free “800” numbers). In these instances, the call handler 110 may use the DNIS to determine the purpose of the call, and potentially identify a group of agents having the appropriate skill level to handle the call. Thus, in various embodiments, the call handler 110 may prioritize and route calls to an agent based on the required skill level. Skills-based routing may be a rule-based set of instructions that the call handler 110 uses to handle calls. Depending on the embodiment, skills-based routing may be implemented by the call handler 110, or by the call handler 110 interacting with a computer-telephone integrated (“CTI”) server (not shown).

The second type of signaling information that may be provided with an inbound call is the calling telephone number, often referred to as automatic number identification or “ANI.” In particular embodiments, the call handler 110 and/or CTI server may use the ANI of an incoming call to retrieve caller information from a data store 175 and provide the data to an agent's workstation computer 160 a-160 c over facilities 168 along with routing the call to the agent's workstation phone 161 a-161 c. Further, in particular embodiments, the ANI may also be used to ascertain a party's status (e.g., a “Gold Level” customer warranting premium service), determine whether consent has been received by a party for particular services or actions, and/or to facilitate the call handler 110 routing the call to a select group of agents. Depending on the embodiment, the data store 175 may include one or more databases storing different information such as, for example, records of caller information. Further, the data store 175 may be integrated with the call handler 110 or segregated as a standalone medium or media.

In various embodiments, the call handler 110 may place a call in a queue if there are no suitable agents available, and/or it may route the call to an interactive voice response system (e.g., server) (“IVR”) (not shown) to play voice prompts. In particular embodiments, these prompts may be in a menu type structure and the IVR may collect and analyze responses from the party in the form of dual-tone multiple frequency (“DMTF”) tones and/or speech. In addition, the IVR may be used to further identify the purpose of the call, such as, for example, prompting the party to enter account information or otherwise obtain information used to service the call. Further, in particular embodiments, the IVR may interact with other components, such as the CTI server or the data store 175, to retrieve or provide information for processing the call. In other configurations, the IVR may be used to only provide announcements.

Depending on the embodiment, the interaction between the various components shown may involve using a local area network (“LAN”) 170. However, other configurations are possible, such as, but not limited to, using a wide area network, wireless network, router, bridge, direct point-to-point links, etc.

In particular embodiments, when an agent is interacting with a called or calling party, the agent may use his workstation computer 160 a-160 c to further interact with other enterprise computing systems, such as, for example, a customer relationship management (“CRM”) server (not shown). A CRM server may be used to integrate information from various enterprise business systems to facilitate the agent servicing the call. In addition, the CRM server may provide a variety of applications.

In addition to receiving inbound communications, including, for example, voice calls, emails, text messages, and facsimiles, the call center may also originate communications to a called party, referred to herein as “outbound” communications. In some embodiments, the call handler 110 may be a dialer, such as a predictive dialer, to originate outbound calls at a rate designed to meet various criteria. Similar to the other components within the call center architecture 100, depending on the embodiment, the dialer may comprise one or more software modules executing on a processing device hardware platform.

In various embodiments, the call handler 110 is typically configured to dial a list of telephone numbers to initiate outbound calls. Thus, in some embodiments, the call handler 110 may include functionality for originating calls, and if so, this functionality may be referred to as a private automatic branch exchange (“PBX” or “PABX”). Further, in other embodiments, the call handler 110 may directly interface with voice trunks using facilities 116 c, 116 d, 116 e to the PSTN 115 and/or Internet providers 123 a, 123 b for originating calls. After the calls are originated, a transfer operation by the call handler 110 may connect the call with an agent or a queue, or in some instances the IVR. In various embodiments, the call handler 110 may make use of one or more algorithms to determine how and when to dial a list of numbers so as to minimize the likelihood of a called party being placed in a queue while maintaining target agent utilization.

Also shown is a Speech Analytics System (“SAS”) 120. This typically monitors the speech during a call, and is able to monitor both the agent's and the remote party's speech. This is typically accomplished by using a conference bridge in the call handler 110, with a conference leg to the SAS 120, although the SAS only listens to the speech, and does not interject any speech into the conference bridge. The SAS typically interfaces with the LAN 170 to communicate with other components, including the call handler 110 and an alert reporting module 180.

The SAS is configured to detect certain speech conditions. These are also known as “topics” since it refers to a particular context. Thus, the SAS can be configured to detect an agent's response to a particular question asked by the remote party, or ensure that the agent properly introduced themselves at the beginning of the call. The SAS can be configured to detect each speech condition and report its detection, which is a form of a RTSA alert. To distinguish the alert generated by the SAS as opposed to an alert generated by the alert reporting module, the alert generated by the SAS is referred to herein as an “alert message.” This is merely to avoid confusion. A variety of protocol formats may be used and reference to an “alert message” should not be construed as limiting the communication from the SAS to a single message.

The topics detected by the SAS are typically associated with a name for administrative convenience. As noted earlier, the SAS can be configured to detect the agent providing a greeting at the beginning of a call. This topic could be given the name of “welcome.” Thus, the “welcome topic” relates to detecting the agent's greeting. Similarly, a “closing topic” could detect a particular closing speech condition. Thus, the names provide an easy reference to a particular speech condition that the SAS is configured to detect.

The SAS 120 reports each detected topic to the alert reporting module 180 (“ARM”). The ARM, in turn, is configured to inform an administrator, often at a computer 157, although other processing devices may be involved (e.g., tablets, smart phones, etc). The ARM processes the alert message from the SAS and generates the alert indication to the administrator. As will be seen, the ARM may map an alert message to a variety of alert indication formats, depending on various criteria.

Although a number of the above components may be referred to as a “server,” each may be also referred to in the art as a “computing device,” “unit” or “system.” A server may incorporate a local data store and/or interface with an external data store. Use of the word “server” does not require the component to interact in a client-server arrangement with other components, although that may be the case. Further, the above components may be located remotely from (or co-located with) other components. Furthermore, one or more of the components may be implemented on a single processing device to perform the functions described herein. For example, in various embodiments, one or more functionalities of the call handler 110 or other component may be combined into a single hardware platform executing one or more software modules. In addition, the call center architecture 100 may be provided as a hosted solution, where the call processing functionality is provided as a communication service (a so-called “communication-as-a-service” or “CaaS”) to a call center operator. Thus, there is no requirement that the servers identified above actually be located or controlled by a call center operator.

In addition, depending on the embodiment, the agent positions may be co-located in a single physical call center or multiple physical call centers. The agents may be remotely located from the other components of the call center, and may also be remotely located from each other, sometimes referred to as a “virtual call center.” In particular instances, a virtual call center may describe a scenario in which agents work at home, using their own computers and telephones as workstations. In some configurations, a single physical location of the call center may not be readily identifiable. For instance, this may occur when the call processing functions are provided as a service in a hosted cloud computing environment and the agents positions are in their individual residences. It is even possible for the supervisor to be remotely located (e.g., work at home), and such an arrangement does not negate the existence of the call center.

Those skilled in art will recognize FIG. 1 represents one possible configuration of a call center architecture 100, and that variations are possible with respect to the protocols, facilities, components, technologies, and equipment used. For example, various algorithms and queuing arrangements may be defined to efficiently process and/or place calls.

Turning next to FIG. 2, additional detail is provided regarding how a particular call is analyzed by the RTSA system. In this illustration, a three-way call is established and shown as a dotted line. One call leg 220 a of the three-way call involves the telephone 102 of the remote party which is connected through the PSTN 115 to the call handler 110. The call handler 110 effectively provide a conference capability illustrated as a three-way bridge 225, although a variety of technologies can be used to provide such functionality. Another call leg 220 b is established to the computer 160 a of an agent, so that the agent and remote party can converse. Finally, the call handler 110 also establishes a third call leg 220 c to the SAS 120. This allows the SAS to listen and monitor the speech between the agent and remote party. Unlike a conventional three-way call, the SAS may not be able to interject speech into the conference, or if the bridge does allow it, the SAS typically does not provide speech into the conference. Consequently, the call leg 220 c to the SAS may be either bi-directional or unidirectional.

The SAS 120 is configured to recognize the presence or absence of certain keywords, which may be individual words or sets of words, including phrases. Thus, the SAS may send an alert message based on the real-time detected speech (or lack thereof) detected in a certain context. This alert message is received by the ARM 180, which converts the message into an alert. In the context used herein, an “alert” (by itself, without qualifying the word “message”) is information designed to ultimately inform a person with minimal processing, whereas an “alert message” refers to information designed to be further processed by a module. Thus, the SAS 120 provides alert messages, typically in a particular format, to the ARM 180, which then provides suitable alerts in a desirable form effective for human processing. The ARM 180 may also store alert information in an agent alert data 275 stored in a database.

The ARM processes the alert message received from the SAM in order to provide a more useful and effective form of alert notification to the appropriate personnel. The ARM module may interface with a LAN 170 for sending particular alerts to display devices in a more user-friendly manner. For example, the ARM 180 may send RTSA alerts to a supervisor's workstation 157, which the supervisor 210 views. In other embodiments, the ARM may send the RTSA alerts to a mobile device, such as to a tablet 215, which may have a Wi-Fi interface. Other devices, such as smart phone may be used by the supervisor.

Some of the functions performed by the ARM include:

-   -   Authorization and Security: administrators may log into the ARM         to configure how the alerts are sent, to whom they are sent, and         how certain conditions are manifested in the alerts. The         authorization and security may be based on conventional user         identification and password credentials.     -   Mapping of RTSA messages to RTSA Alerts. As will be seen,         various conditions may be reported in a RTSA message and each         can be mapped to particular graphical elements, such as icons,         images, colors, and even sounds. This mapping may be defined or         modified by editing various settings, which provide flexibility         as to how RTSA alerts may be defined. In one embodiment, an         alert mapping table may be used to define the mapping of an         alert message to an alert indication for a user.     -   Individuals Receiving Notifications. The ARM is configured to         provide alerts to certain devices/individuals. These may be         based on the type of alert. For example, all alerts may be         provided to one device or supervisor, whereas other select         alerts may also be provided to another supervisor. This allows         more serious speech conditions to be detected and reported as         desired within the contact center. For example, certain RTSA         alerts may be sent as SMS texts to a smart phone of a team         leader as well as the contact center supervisor.     -   Device Configuration Information. The ARM may also have         configuration information as to how information is to be         presented on different devices or individuals. For example,         information may be configured for display on a computer using a         conventional web browser or for display on a smart phone using a         mobile browser. A supervisor may desire to receive certain types         of alerts as SMS texts messages, but this requires structuring         the text for 160 characters (the size of the SMS text). In other         embodiments, alerts may be sent to a paging system, voice         announcement system, etc.         Alert Reporting Module Process Flow

Various embodiments of the concepts are reflected in the process flows contained in the figures. The logical operations described herein may be implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts or one or more program modules running on a computing system and/or (2) as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within the computing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on the performance and other requirements of the computing system. Accordingly, the logical operations described herein are referred to variously as states, operations, structural devices, acts, or modules. These operations, structural devices, acts, and modules may be implemented in software, in firmware, in special purpose digital logic, and any combination thereof. Greater or fewer operations may be performed than shown in the figures and described herein. These operations may also be performed in a different order than those described herein.

The ARM receives the RTSA alert messages from the SAS and processes this information in order to generate the RTSA alerts intended for human consumption. A high level process flow 300 is shown in FIG. 3A. The process flow 300 begins with receiving the alert message from the SAM in operation 305. This could be conveyed on a direct link, or by using a LAN as shown in FIG. 1. The message can be provided using a variety of formats, and the content is intended to be processed by the ARM. Typically the message provides information about the RTSA topic that was detected, also referred to as the “speech condition.” This typically includes information such as the time of the detection of the speech condition, an identifier of the particular call, and in some embodiments, information identifying the agent. Depending on how the RTSA topic is defined, additional information may also reflect whether a topic (e.g., keyword) was detected during a call or its absence was noted during a call. In various embodiments, the message does not convey information as to the severity, impact, or individuals to be notified. As can be appreciated, the exact information conveyed in the alert message may vary in different embodiments. Typically, the information at least identifies the speech condition detected on a specific call.

Next, the ARM retrieves a current alert counter for that active call for that agent in operation 310. This counter reflects the current cumulative number of alerts received for that call and is incremented in operation 315. This count may be also stored in the agent's alert count in a database previously identified, so that cumulative statistics may be maintained for the agent. In some embodiments, cumulative counts for the number of alerts received during a call for an agent are maintained, and may also be cumulatively maintained for the shift of the agent and/or for an extended time period (e.g., two weeks, quarterly, annually). This allows easy reference by a supervisor to evaluate the progress (or trending pattern) of the agent over time or view a snapshot of the agent's performance during the call or during their shift.

The current alert counter is then displayed in operation 320 over an agent icon in an “Alert Bubble” which may be a circle encasing the numerical value. This is a static indication, since it always appears in conjunction with the agent icon. The agent icon is a graphical representation of an agent. As will be seen, there are other GUI formats which can be used in lieu of agent icons, but the illustration herein is based on using agent icons.

The next steps are focused on displaying a dynamic alert indication. This may be displayed in a transient manner, typically over, or adjacent to, the agent icon. First, a display timer is started in operation 325. This timer defines how long the RTSA alert is displayed over the agent icon. This value is typically set between 1 and 15 seconds, which is long enough to capture the attention of an individual looking at the agent icons and perhaps allows them to read the text provided with it, but not too long that the cumulative display of RTSA alerts begins to “clutter” the display of agent icons. Other timer values may be used, and the range of 1-15 seconds reflects a typical range, and not any sort of limit. Short or longer range values may be used.

Next, the RTSA alert is displayed in operation 330. The particular format of the RTSA alert may depend on the content of the RTSA message received from the SAS. The format may reflect different colors, icons, fonts, and text, which may be based on the type and severity of the alert message. The ARM may use an alert mapping table (discussed below) to map an alert message to various colors, fonts, icons, and text that is to be displayed. Reference to an alert mapping table is intended to encompass other types of data structures or mechanisms that may be used to perform the mapping function. Thus, reference to the “alert mapping table” should not be interpreted as requiring a table structure in all embodiments.

The RTSA alert is usually displayed until the display timer expires. Hence, in operation 335 a decision reflects whether the timer has expired. If not, the process loops back to operation 330 which has the effect of maintaining the display. Once the timer expires in operation 335, the process continues by removing the alert overlay from the display in operation 340. The process is completed at that point.

The steps that occur in operation 330 that map the alert message into the RTSA alert for human review may greatly vary from embodiment to embodiment. The procedures defined herein reflect one approach, which allows certain alert information to be quickly conveyed and subsequently reviewed in greater depth by a supervisor in a contact center. The potential for a large number of RTSA alerts, which depends on the number of agents involved in simultaneous calls and the number of speech conditions detected, can greatly vary. Thus, the need to provide an effective synopsis of the relevant information depends on each embodiment. For example, some RTSA alerts may inform of compliance violations that could result in legal liability to a contact center operator. Such violations need to be easily distinguished by the supervisor from other, less critical, RTSA alerts.

The user viewing the agent icon may choose to view additional information about the alert, or other historical alerts associated with that particular agent. This may be accomplished by the user selecting the alert bubble or agent icon using a pointing device (e.g., mouse, joystick, cursor control, touch-screen, stylus, etc.) In one embodiment, the user may select the alert bubble or the agent icon at any time, including during the transient display of the alert indication over the agent icon. In another embodiment, the user may select the agent icon after the display of the transient alert indication ceases. In this case, the alert count shown in the alert bubble is displayed and informs the user that there was a prior alert indication received and that further information is available. This process flow is shown in FIG. 3B.

Turning to FIG. 3B, the process flow begins with receiving an input from the user requesting additional alert details in operation 350. A determination is made for the selected agent whether there are, in fact, any reported alert indications for that specific agent. If the alert count is zero (indication there are no prior alert indications), then the process terminates as there is no further information to display. If, however, the alert count is non-zero (e.g., a positive number), then there is additional alert information to be displayed. The appropriate information may be retrieved from a database, an alert log, or from memory. The alert details are provided in operation 360 to the user. This may be displayed using a variety of formats. The information may be displayed until an input is received closing the alert detail box in operation 365. Thus, if no such input is received, the process loops back to display the alert detailed in operation 360. Once the input is received to close the alert detail box, then the alert detail box is closed in operation 370. At that point, the process is completed.

Agent Icons—FIGS. 4-5

One format for displaying RTSA alerts involves overlaying a RTSA alert on an agent icon. Typically a grid of agent icons are viewed or presented at any given time. Before this aspect is reviewed further, it is appropriate to illustrate one embodiment of an agent icon.

Turning to FIG. 4, a representative agent icon 400 is shown. This is a box containing information that is designed to identify an agent and provide high level status information. For the purpose of identifying the relevant agent, each agent icon may include an image 410 of the agent, which may be a picture, icon, or caricature of the agent. If an image is not available, a generic “outline profile” may be used. In addition, a name 405 of the agent is provided. This allows the supervisor to quickly associate the face and name of the agent for identification purposes.

A variety of status indicators may be provided. In this embodiment, an indication of the call campaign 435 is indicated. In this example, the agent is fielding customer service calls. The agent state 440 is reflected, which may be: connected, paused, waiting, or logged off. Other states may be defined. Briefly, “connected” means the agent is connected on a call; “pause” means the agent is not on a call, nor available to receive a call; “waiting” means the agent is ready to receive another call; and “logged-off” means the agent has logged off of the call handler. A timer 445 reflects how long that agent has been in that state. (For logged off, this value may be set to zero or null.) Thus, in FIG. 4, agent Mary Thompson is currently engaged in a customer service call and has been doing so for the last two minutes and thirty-four seconds.

Other information shown may include an agent station number 425, which may reflect a particular workspace location, physical telephone, or logical phone being used by the agent. In addition, a group indicator 430 may be used to indicate what group the agent is assigned to. It is possible, for example, that there may be multiple groups assigned to the same campaign.

The “select option” 450 icon allows a supervisor to select various functions that can be performed for that agent. These include: barge-in (joining the call), monitor (to listen to the call), or log-off the agent (to make the agent unavailable for further calls). Other functions may be defined.

Finally, the agent icon may include a color portion 420, shown in the figure as a shade of gray, although in practice, various colors may be used. The color may reflect the state of the agent, which can provide an easier means of identifying an agent's state as opposed to reading text 440. Further, the colors can also reflect other states, such as being monitored or a specific activity while in the paused state. Other embodiments may use different shadings, hatching patterns, etc.

A collection of agent icons may be assembled on a screen of a workstation or tablet. One embodiment is shown in FIG. 5. In this figure, the screen 500 is referred to as having a “grid” layout of agent icons 550 a-550 f, because the agent icons are typically arranged in rows and columns (e.g., a grid). Typically, a subset of all the available agent icons are shown on a single screen, which necessitates navigation controls 505 for selecting an appropriate page. Further, tools may be provided such as a sorting icon 520 or a filter 530 icon for searching and/or sorting through the agent icons.

RTSA Alerts—FIGS. 6-9

In one embodiment, the RSTA alerts are dynamically overlaid on the grid of agent icons. Specifically, a RTSA alert for a particular agent is overlaid on the corresponding agent icon. One embodiment of a RSTA alert is shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, the agent icon 400 for Mary Thompson is shown. However, overlaid is the RTSA alert 625. In this embodiment, the RTSA alert 625 is partially transparent so that portions of the underlying image may still be seen. In other embodiments, as will be seen, the RTSA alert may be opaque so that the underlying image is not seen.

Each RTSA alert will cause an alert bubble 600 to appear. In this embodiment, the alert bubble is a circle, although in other embodiments other shapes may be used. In some embodiments, just a number may be present. The number (a.k.a. a “count”) represents the cumulative number of alerts for that agent during the current call. In other embodiments, the number may be defined with respect to the current shift, in the last hour, the past week, etc. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the number is based on the current call. Thus, in FIG. 6, this is the first alert reported for the current call involving this agent.

An alert icon 605 is provided, which provides a ready indication of whether the alert reflects a positive or negative condition. Recall that alerts may reflect the detection of a speech condition or the absence of a speech condition. Depending on how the speech condition is identified, the reporting of the condition could be a positive occurrence. For example, agents may be trained to thank the caller at the end of a call, and consequently detecting this speech condition would be viewed as a positive occurrence. In this example, the agent has done so, and consequently a positive icon 605 is shown.

The RTSA alert may also include text that informs the reader on the specifics of the alert. For example, text 610 may be provided that reflects a date, time, and call identifier for the speech condition that was detected. A time 615 into the current call may be indicated. This allows identification of the speech should verification be desired. Further, text 620 may reflect the particular RTSA topic that was detected. Finally, a color background may be used to indicate the particular type of alert, severity of alert, etc. For example, a positive condition may include a green background whereas a negative condition may incorporate a red background. Other colors or visual patterns may be used.

The RTSA alert may appear by fading in over the agent icon for the duration of a display timer, and then may fade out upon the expiration of the timer. The use of a background color and an icon allows the viewer to readily ascertain the relative importance of the alert, even if the supervisor does not read the text and only sees the RTSA alert for a fraction of a second. Further, the alert bubble 600 provides a simple means to review which agents are encountering a large number of alerts. This provides an easy to use mechanism allowing the supervisor to evaluate an alert.

FIG. 7 illustrates another embodiment of a RTSA alert 703. In this example, the same agent icon 400 is involved, though most of it is obscured by the alert. It is assumed that this is the second alert received during this call for the agent. Thus, the alert bubble 700 reflects a “2”.

The alert icon 705 in this embodiment is a warning icon, reflecting that a negative speech condition was detected. This may be accompanied by a red background color 725. The alert also includes text that reflects the date, time, and call 710, the time into the call 715, the topic detected 720, and in this case, additional information related to additional actions, namely that an escalation has been initiated 730. This may reflect a notification was sent to another individual regarding the presence of the alert.

FIG. 8A shows how the RTSA alert 703 from FIG. 7 would appear when presented on a screen comprising a grid of agent icons. In FIG. 8, the screen 800 shows the grid of agent icons, and the RTSA alert 703 is shown overlaid thereon. This would be shown for the duration of the display timer, and then fade away so that the original agent icon would be shown. However, after fading away, the alert bubble would remain indicating the number of alerts having been received for that current call. For example, another agent is shown with another alert bubble 807. If this is defined to reflect the number of alerts during a particular call, then the value is reset (or the alert bubble removed) after the call terminates.

In various embodiments, the viewer may select the alert bubble by selecting the alert bubble icon. Depending on the technology involved, this may involve the user using a mouse to position a cursor over the alert bubble or using some other pointing device. In FIG. 8B, it is assumed that a touch-screen is being used on a tablet, and the user may select the bubble alert by touching it with his finger 820. Selecting the alert bubble will cause a pop-up window 875 to appear as shown in FIG. 8C. This pop-up window 875 includes text associated with the prior alerts. A more detailed view of the pop-up window 875 is shown in FIG. 9

Turning to FIG. 9, the pop-up window 875 may include text portions 910, 915 that reflect the text with prior alerts. The agent may chose to read and mark these as having been reviewed. Separate controls may be presented 930 allowing the agent to review all of the alerts for the agent or only those unread. In addition, another portion 905 of the pop-up window includes a positivity score 920 and a compliance score 925. These scores provide a summary of the current standing on the agent's performance relative to customer service (e.g., “positivity”) and compliance. These scores are assigned to each detected RTSA topic and allow a weighting of the relative importance of the detected speech conditions.

Other Graphical Formats—FIGS. 10A-10C

Other graphical formats may be used for displaying a RTSA alert. One such format involves a graphical depiction of an office layout or floor plan. The floor plan represents the locations of the workspaces of the various agents. One such representation is shown in FIG. 10A. In the floor plan layout 1000, a quadrant of workspaces 1020 a, 1020 b, 1020 c, and 1020 d are defined. Each workspace has e.g., a chair 1010 and a workstation 1030 used by an agent. The quadrant of workspaces may be in turn replicated as needed. In the floor plan 1000 shown, a total of sixteen agent workspaces are shown.

Each agent may be assigned a workspace location and the supervisor may associate a workspace location on the floor plan with a particular agent. Thus, when a RTSA alert is displayed over a work location, the supervisor can then associate the alert with the agent. One embodiment of a dynamically displayed RTSA alert is shown in FIG. 10B. In this figure, the RTSA alert 1045 is overlaid at the workspace of the agent. The alert bubble 1040 is displayed as well, along with the agent's name 1030 and picture 1035. The positioning of the agent's name and picture facilitates identification of the agent by the supervisor, in addition to placing the RTSA alert over that agent's workspace. This may be useful for some embodiments where agents may share a workspace for different shifts or days during the week. The RTSA alert is temporarily displayed, and will fade out after the display timer expires.

The supervisor can select the workspace to review additional information regarding the alert. This can be accomplished by using a pointing device, as disclosed before. Once the workspace is selected, the alert text box 1050 shown in FIG. 10C may be displayed. This allows the supervisor to read additional details of the latest or other previous alerts. The supervisor can close the alert text box when completed. This allows the supervisor to then view other RTSA alerts or select other workspace locations for investigation.

Tabular Formats—FIGS. 11A-11B

The prior embodiments illustrate application of various graphical formats for displaying the overlaid RTSA alerts. It is also possible to use a tabular format for displaying overlaid RTSA alerts. The use of tabular format operates in concept similar to the graphical format, except that a spreadsheet-like format may be employed. One embodiment is shown in FIG. 11A. In FIG. 11A, the table 1100 comprises various columns with various identifiers. Included is a column 1105 for the agent's name and a column 1110 for the number of current RTSA alerts. This represents the number of current alerts for the call that the agent is currently connected to. In addition, another column 1120 for the number of cumulative RTSA alerts is shown. This represents the number of alerts associated with that agent since the beginning of a time period, such as in the past hour, since the start of their shift, for the week, etc.

In this embodiment, the dynamically displayed RTSA alert comprises an icon 1130 which may be temporarily displayed. This draws attention to the supervisor viewing the table that a RTSA alert has been reported. In other embodiments, additional information may be presented regarding the alert, it severity, etc.

If the supervisor desires to view further information, the supervisor may again use a pointing device, such as a mouse, joystick, or stylus, to select the cell for that agent to receive additional information. A touch screen could also be used. Once selected, additional alert information may be presented as shown in FIG. 11B. In FIG. 11B, the alert text window 1160 is presented, which provides the additional information. The supervisor can then close the alert text window 1160 when viewing is completed.

No doubt that one skilled in the art may be able to devise variations on the concepts and technologies disclosed above in light of the present disclosure. There are a variety of graphical formats that can be used for defining the contents of agent icons, how they are arranged, and how RTSA alerts are defined and displayed. For example, other floor plan configurations are readily possible that could be used, including using rows and other workspace cluster formations. With respect to using a tabular-based presentation interface, the tabular arrangement can be displayed as a real-time dashboard and may incorporate or display other information in real-time.

Alert Mapping Table—FIG. 12

FIG. 12 shows one embodiment of an alert mapping table. This data structure may be accessed by the ARM and used to process an alert message from the SAS in order to generate the appropriate RTSA alert in a human readable form. The alert messages from the SAS typically report the speech conditions, called “topics” in a specific call, involving a particular agent. In various embodiments, it is the ARM that then uses this information to generate the appropriate alert. Although referenced as a table, other types of data structures are intended to be covered.

Turning to the table 1200 in FIG. 12, a number of columns are presented. The first column is the RTSA Topic column 1205, which functions as an index. Although represented as text, it usually is a numerical value corresponding to a particular speech condition. For example, the “Welcome Greeting” topic refers to the SAS detecting the presence of an appropriate greeting by the agent upon answering the call. Upon detecting this RTSA topic, an alert is formatted as defined by the various other characteristics.

For example, the second column 1210 defines a color to be used when displaying the RTSA alert. In the case of the Welcome Greeting 1250 topic, it is a green color. Further, the next column 1215 indicates the appropriate icon to use, which is illustrated as a checkmark. In practice, again, the value would be a numerical value corresponding to that icon. The fourth column 1220 indicates to whom the alert should be sent to. In this case, it is sent to the supervisor, according to the configured way (e.g., using an agent icon grid, tabular format, etc). Other alerts may result in another message (e.g., a text message) being sent to a team leader or other individual. The fifth column 1225 defines the text that should be displayed with the particular alert. This is in a human readable form, and in the example shown, the text indicates “Greeting Detected”.

The next two columns 1230, 1235 represent “positivity score points” and “compliance score points”. These represent mechanisms to allocate a severity or weight to the detected speech condition. This allows the supervisor to review a cumulative score that represents how well the agent is performing. The categories and definition of these scores can vary significantly from embodiment to embodiment, but they represent a numerical value associated with certain speech conditions that reflects a current and/or aggregate performance metric of the agent.

The positivity score may be allocated to speech conditions which represent good behavior. By allocating a negative score, a bad behavior can be represented. In one embodiment, these speech conditions can be linked to customer service goals. For example, the alert mapping table 1200 allocates positivity score points for providing a welcome greeting and providing a proper “wrap up” (e.g., thanking the customer and asking if there are any other questions they may assist with). On the other hand, points are subtracted if the agent states a curse word during the call. Thus, the cumulative number of positivity points can be used to evaluate how well the agent is performing in these aspects.

Similarly, the compliance score points may be allocated on matters that relate to compliance issues. These may be assigned to detecting compliance related speech conditions. For example, the alert mapping table 1200 allocates negative compliance points for two topics. Specifically, −20 points are allocated whenever the “lawyer retained” topic is detected and −100 points when the “mini-Miranda” speech condition is not detected. The “lawyer retained” topic may be defined as detecting attempts by the agent to continue collecting a debt when the party has informed the agent that they have retained a lawyer. In this case, the agent should cease any attempts to collect a debt, and attempting to do so may be a violation of a regulation. The “mini-Miranda” speech condition reflects that the agent should inform the party that the purpose of the call is to collect a debt. Thus, the “mini-Miranda” should be stated shortly after the call is answered. Violation of this condition may be a serious compliance violation, and the allocation of −100 points may represent that it is considered a more serious violation than the “lawyer retained” violation. Consequently, the agent's compliance with various regulations may be gauged by examining their net compliance score.

There may be other score types defined, based on the goals desired by the contact center to monitor and evaluate a particular type of agent behavior. For example, a number of RTSA topics could be defined as “up-selling.” These topics could detect speech conditions that reflect when the agent is offering the customer additional items to go with a purchase. Points could be allocated for asking the customer if a matching belt is desired to go along with a purchase of shoes. Points could be allocated for asking if the customer would like another item in a different color, etc. A cumulative “up-selling” score could be maintained for measuring an agent's effectiveness in this category. Thus, there may be a variety of score types that may be maintained for an agent.

Other columns 1240 may be defined in the alert mapping table. These can provide other characteristics associated with how the RTSA alert could be provided. Particularly urgent or significant speech conditions that are detected may be associated with a providing a sound in addition to presenting an icon. Or, the RTSA alert could result in a supplemental message delivered to the agent's workstation, an immediate text message sent to a supervisor, etc. Other graphical user interface techniques for drawing attention could be used—for example, an RTSA alert could be mapped to a blinking or flashing icon. In other embodiments, a set of points could be deposited into a virtual account maintained for the agent, which is then used by the contact center management when scheduling agents. These points could be used to give priority to the agent for future work scheduling decisions. For example, the agent with the best compliance score could be given priority for requesting the day off for the next upcoming holiday. Thus, there may be a variety of additional characteristics defined for how a topic is mapped to an alert indication.

Further, other data structures than the alert mapping table may be used. Thus, the “alert mapping table” refers to any form of data structure and/or process that maps a RTSA message from a SAS to a form designed for human review, whether it may be a list, linked tables, a database, rule process, etc.

Exemplary Component Architecture—FIG. 13

FIG. 13 is an exemplary schematic diagram of a computer processing system that may be used in an embodiment for any one of the components used in the contact center architecture to practice the technologies disclosed herein. In general, the term “computer processing system” may be exemplified by, for example, but without limitation: a personal computer, server, desktop computer, tablets, smart phones, notebooks, laptops, distributed systems, servers, blades, gateways, switches, and the like, as well as any combination of devices or entities adapted to perform the functions described herein.

As shown in FIG. 13, the processing system 1300 may include one or more processors 1301 that may communicate with other elements within the processing system 1300 via a bus 1305 or some other form of communication facility. The processor 1301 may be implemented as one or more complex programmable logic devices (“CPLD”), microprocessors, multi-core processors, digital signal processors (“DSP”), system-on-a-chip (“SOC”), co-processing entities, application-specific integrated circuits (“ASIC”), field programmable gate arrays (“FPGA”), programmable logic arrays (“PLA”), hardware accelerators, other circuitry, or the like. Each of these must be programmed accordingly to perform the functions disclosed herein.

In one embodiment, the processing system 1300 may also include one or more communications interfaces 1302 for communicating data via the local network with various external devices, including those shown in FIGS. 1-2. In various embodiments, communication may be via wired, optical, or wireless networks (or a combination thereof). The communication may use a variety of data transmission protocols, such as fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), Ethernet, asynchronous transfer mode (“ATM”), or frame relay.

An input/output controller 1303 may also communicate with one or more input devices or peripherals using an interface 1304, such as, but not limited to: a keyboard, a mouse, a touch screen/display input, microphone, pointing device, etc. The input/output controller 1303 may also communicate with output devices or peripherals, such as displays, printers, speakers, headsets, banner displays, other components in the contact center, etc. These may be used, in part, to receive data, such as dialing lists retrieved from an external database.

The processor 1301 may be configured to execute instructions stored in volatile memory 1306, non-volatile memory 1307, or other forms of computer readable storage media accessible to the processor 1301. The volatile memory may comprise various types of memory technologies, including, but not limited to: random access memory (“RAM”), dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), static random access memory (“SRAM”), and other forms well known to those skilled in the art. The non-volatile memory may comprise various technologies, including, but not limited to: storage media such as hard disks, floppy disks, read only memory (“ROM”), programmable read only memory (“PROM”), electrically erasable read only memory (“EPROM”), flash memory, and other forms well known to those skilled in the art.

The non-volatile memory 1307 may store program code and data, which also may be loaded into the volatile memory 1306 at execution time. Specifically, the non-volatile memory 1307 may store an alert reporting module 1309 that may perform the above mentioned process flows and/or operating system code 1308 containing instructions for performing the process and/or functions associated with the technologies disclosed herein. The alert reporting module 1309 may also access various alert data 1313 disclosed above (including agent alert data) and process the related information described above. The volatile memory 1306 and/or non-volatile memory 1307 may be used to store other information including, but not limited to: alerts, alert mapping tables, floor plan maps, agent icons, agent pictures, records, applications, programs, scripts, source code, object code, byte code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code, executable instructions, or the like. These may be executed or processed by, for example, processor 1301. These may form a part of, or may interact with, the alert reporting module 1309. In some embodiments, the alert reporting module 1309 may be integrated or located in another component.

The technologies described herein may be implemented in various ways, including as computer program products comprising memory storing instructions causing a processor to perform the operations associated with the above technologies. The computer program product comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing applications, programs, program modules, scripts, source code, program code, object code, byte code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code, executable instructions, and/or the like (also referred to herein as executable instructions, instructions for execution, program code, and/or similar terms). Such non-transitory computer readable storage media include all the above identified computer readable media (including volatile and non-volatile media), but does not include a transitory, propagating signal, nor does it encompass a non-tangible computer readable medium. Non-volatile computer readable storage medium may specifically comprise: a floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, compact disc read only memory (“CD-ROM”), compact disc compact disc-rewritable (“CD-RW”), digital versatile disc (“DVD”), Blu-ray™ disc (“BD”), any other non-transitory optical medium, and/or the like. Non-volatile computer readable storage medium may also comprise read-only memory (“ROM”), programmable read-only memory (“PROM”), erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), flash memory, and/or other technologies known to those skilled in the art.

CONCLUSION

Many modifications and other embodiments of the concepts and technologies set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that embodiments other than the embodiments disclosed herein are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms may be employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, except for the terms defined in the glossary herein. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system for reporting a real-time speech analytics (“RTSA”) alert, comprising: a real-time speech analytics (“RTSA”) system configured to: monitor a call leg involving an agent in a contact center for a speech condition, and generate an alert message in response to detecting the speech condition involving the agent, wherein the alert message indicates a topic related to the speech condition; and an alert reporting module configured to: receive the alert message, and generate a transient alert indication for display on a workstation screen used by a supervisor of the contact center, wherein the transient alert indication indicates text associated with the topic, wherein the transient alert indication is displayed over an image of the agent, and wherein the text reflects expected speech from the agent that is not detected by the RTSA system.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert reporting module is further configured to: generate the transient alert indication for display on the workstation screen using a color corresponding to the topic indicated in the alert message.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the image of the agent further comprises a matrix of a plurality of agent icons arranged a plurality of rows and columns, wherein each of the agent icons represents one of a plurality of agents.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the transient alert indication comprises a numerical score representing a number of transient alert indications reported for the agent for the call.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert reporting module is further configured to: display additional information related to the speech condition detected in response to receiving a user input selecting the image of the agent.
 6. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: receive at an interface an alert message from a real-time speech analytics system, wherein the alert message reports detection of a speech condition on a call involving an agent in a contact center; determine based on a topic indicated by the alert message at least one of a color or an icon to use for displaying a transient alert indication; determine text associated with the topic; and cause the transient alert indication to be displayed on a computer display used in the contact center over an image of the agent involved in the call, wherein the transient alert indication indicates the text and at least one of the color or the icon, and wherein the text reflects expected speech from the agent that is not detected by the real-time speech analytics system.
 7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to: start a display timer upon causing the alert indication to be displayed; and cause the display of the alert indication to be terminated in response to an expiry of the display timer.
 8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to: cause the transient alert indication to be displayed on the computer display using the color corresponding to the topic indicated in the alert message.
 9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to: cause the transient alert indication to be displayed on the computer display wherein the transient alert indication is displayed over an image of the agent.
 10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the image of the agent is an agent icon comprising a photographic image of the agent.
 11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to: cause additional information related to the speech condition to be displayed in response to a user input selecting the agent icon.
 12. A method for dynamically displaying a real-time speech analytics (“RTSA”) alert on a workstation screen in a contact center, comprising: presenting a grid of a plurality of agent-icons on the workstation screen by a computer processor, wherein a particular agent-icon comprises an agent image and represents a particular agent in the contact center currently logged into a call handler in the contact center and engaged on a call with a remote party; receiving at the computer processor an alert message from a RTSA system associated with the particular agent represented by the particular agent-icon, wherein the particular agent is currently connected to the call handled by the call handler, and wherein the call is monitored by the RTSA system; generating by the computer processor a transient alert indication based on the alert message and stored data in a processing system; and displaying the transient alert indication on the workstation screen over the particular agent-icon, wherein the transient alert indication represents detection of a speech condition by the RTSA system pertaining to expected speech from the particular agent that was not detected on the call.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the transient alert indication is displayed overlaid on the particular agent-icon.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the grid of the plurality of agent-icons is presented in a matrix manner comprising a plurality of rows and columns on the workstation screen and each agent-icon comprises an image of a corresponding agent in the contact center.
 15. The method of claim 12, wherein the transient alert indication comprises a numerical value representing a score associated with the speech condition detected by the RTSA system for the particular agent during the call.
 16. The method of claim 12, further comprising: displaying additional information on the workstation screen related to the speech condition in response to selection of the particular agent-icon by a supervisor.
 17. The method of claim 12, wherein the transient alert indication comprises a color selected based on content of the stored data in the processing system and the alert message from the RTSA system. 